As our public auction schedule for 1989 continued, in July we again joined with our partners, as each firm presented 500 lots in the now very popular annual Apostrophe Auction – Auction ’89. Once again, this pre-ANA event in conjunction with RARCOA, David Akers and Superior attracted a lot of attention and was attended by many who wanted to acquire some of the rarities we jointly offered. Our September sale of 1,685 lots started our fall session. This was a "something for everyone" sale that offered United States gold, silver and copper coins, along with U.S. paper money.
A highlight collection of the year, the famous Gilbert Steinberg Collection of Early Colonial Coins, crossed the block as part of our October sale. This cabinet featured many outstanding specimens he had acquired through Stack’s in earlier years as we assisted in building his collection. Mr. Steinberg also loved Hard Time tokens and early store cards. He would visit us almost daily around lunch time, as his Art Store and Gallery was just up the street from our 57th Street location. Part 2 of our October sale contained the exclusive E. Richard Collection of U.S. Type Coins that had some of the finest known, plus a general offering of United States coins, 1,648 lots in all.
In November, Stack’s was proud to offer the now famous James A. Stack Collection of United States Gold, Silver and Copper Coins. James Stack was not a relative, but he was a very close and dear friend of the Stack family. He had assembled this fine cabinet over the previous half century, as he searched our sales and inventory to gather one of the finest collections developed during this time. Many coins were acquired from famous pedigree collections we had the pleasure of selling. It included an extensive offering of half cents starting with 1793 and including most of the Proof dates. Also of note were early type coins and runs of dates and mints of U.S. gold. This sale attracted hundreds of collectors nationwide, and today these rare and very choice coins reside in some of the finest collections, where the James Stack pedigree is proudly displayed. This auction of 1,888 lots was among the highlight collections offered during this decade.
In December, we closed the auction year with an extensive offering of Ancient and Foreign coins from various consignors. It featured three specialized ancients collections and a number of consignments of high grade material from estates, financial institutions and private collectors. The consignors included Dr. M. Bryce, Dr. Alfred Globus and the Estate of Amon G. Carter, Jr. Stack’s was able to meld these various consignments into a catalog featuring some 1,787 lots which attracted collectors from all. The feature coin was the Poland 100 Ducat of 1641 issued by Sigismund III – the catalog cover coin.
It was a record year for Stack’s, with over 20,000 lots being offered in 1989 at Public Auction. The staff, with Harvey, Norman and Larry leading the cataloging, were successful in presenting this large number of lots, cataloging them in house, and realizing many records. Our continuing dedication to our clients and collector friends resulted in these valuable numismatic consignments coming to us for sale. The extensive mailing list and collector base we established and maintained gave us this unchallenged position as leader in the sale of rare numismatics.
